Real Story Group. Make Better Technology Decisions.

Delivering fearless advice since 2001. Here's our story
What Real Independence means. Find Out

  • Free Excerpt
  • Contact
  • Subscriber Login
  • Your cart is empty.
Sign up for our Newsletter
  • Home
  • Research
  • Coverage Areas
  • Consulting
  • About
  • Blog
  • Buy Now
  • Recent Entries
  • Get Custom Feeds

 

 

 

Pelz-Sharpe Alan Pelz-Sharpe

Alfresco as a SharePoint alternative

31-Jul-2008

Microsoft SharePoint goes open source? Shock, horror! Ok, well not quite, but an open source alternative to SharePoint is now an option with the release of Alfresco's Lab 3 Beta product. Alfresco's new module allows you to hook Office into Alfresco, giving you the option to use Alfresco as opposed to SharePoint as your collaboration platform.

It's an interesting option. As readers of our ECM Suites Report 2008 know, Alfresco is one of the more interesting ECM vendors around. The question you might ask yourself however is, why would anyone want to do use Alfresco instead of SharePoint? Clearly open source enthusiasts will herald this as a major breakthrough - and those enterprises that espouse open source may well become customers. But then again, if you are going to dump Microsoft for the back end, why use Office at all, given there are open source alternatives?

But this release has appeal beyond the open source community, for the simple fact that by using the Alfresco alternative you are not locked into the Microsoft stack. This isn't so much an issue now, but will be when Office and SharePoint effectively merge at the next major release. Unhooking the two from each other (or at least having the option to do so) is good risk mitigation, and a powerful thing to have in your armory when negotiating with Microsoft.

Where Alfresco may find a particular sweet spot is with those organizations looking to take SharePoint beyond its limits. In some of those cases Alfresco may well be more developer-friendly both in terms of the technology (AJAX and RESTful) and more digestible in terms of pricing. It's a David and Goliath situation - and certainly that's how Alfresco would like to pitch it. But outside the Book of Samuel, David and Goliath-style battles seldom turn out in quite the same way.

One does need to be aware that Lab 3 is a beta release and an open source product, so it's really not to everyone's tastes. Nevertheless, while many ECM vendors have released SharePoint add-ons and related products, Alfresco's new module goes for the SharePoint jugular. Despite the small size of Alfresco, the product is likely to gain some real attention over the coming year. Worth remembering though (as we detail in our ECM Suites Report) is that while Alfresco may well be open source, it's not free, and just as some people think SharePoint is free, of course it is not. In other words, if you are thinking that Alfresco is a free alternative to SharePoint then you are mistaken, it's simply an alternative, albeit a very intriguing one.

As with any beta release we urge you to be cautious. We're currently looking at the product as a part of our evaluations for the ECM Suites Report, and of course in the context of our SharePoint Report. In time Alfresco Lab 3 may turn out to be a damp squib, but for now it's got our attention.

    Now Get the Complete Real Story

    Get All Vendor Evaluations

    Learn the real strengths and weaknesses of major vendors from around the world, in our evaluation research stream.

Tweet

Tags: Document Management (ECM), Marketplace at Large, Open Source, SharePoint 2010 - ECSSR

close x

Free Sample Request

  Brand & Digital Asset Management
  Broadcast & Media Asset Management
  Cloud File Sharing & Collaboration
  Digital Marketing Technology
  Document Management (ECM)
  Enterprise Collaboration & Social Software
  Enterprise Search
  Evaluating SharePoint
  Portals & Content Integration
  Web Content & Experience Management
Is your interest or need urgent?
 Sign up to stay up-to-date on the latest news and webinars from RSG.
Your personal information, including your e-mail address, will be held in the strictest of confidence and will never be shared with anyone.

Subscriber Log In

Remember Me
Forgot password?
Not a subscriber?
Learn about our subscriptions

Research Mentioned in this Post

Vendor Evaluations

|

Our Customers Say...

"Theresa Regli and the Real Story Group are doing an exhaustive coverage of globally available Digital & Media Asset Management Research products. I have seen their sample reports and have compared them with the ones by Gartner and Forrester. Real Story Group’s report on DAM systems is the best in the world"

Punit Dhandhania, Content Architecture, Workflows, Systems & Strategies Consultant

next More

Stay in Touch

Get the Real Story bi-weekly.

Have Questions?

USA & Canada
+1 800 325 6190

UK
+44 (0) 20 3318 1911

International
+1 617 340 6464


All Other Inquiries

Real Story Group

Follow us on:  RSS  |  Twitter  |  Facebook  |  YouTube

Coverage Areas

  • Web Content & Experience Management
  • Brand & Digital Asset Management
  • Broadcast & Media Asset Management
  • Document Management (ECM)
  • Enterprise Collaboration & Social Software
  • Portals & Content Integration
  • Enterprise Search
  • Evaluating SharePoint
  • Cloud File Sharing & Collaboration
  • Digital Marketing Technology

Premium Research

  • Compare Research Programs
  • Advisory Papers & Webinars
  • Vendors Evaluated
  • Build a Custom ShortList
  • Schedule Analyst Consultation
  • Download Immediately

About Us

  • Our Methodology
  • Our Team
  • Media
  • Customer List
  • Events
  • Consulting Services
  • Contact Us

Need Help?

  • Talk to an Expert
  • FAQs
  • Customer Support
  • Contact Sales Team
  • Help with your account

Copyright Real Story Group 2001 - 2013. All rights reserved.

  • Contact Us
  • Copyright Policy
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of Use

Log In

Remember MeForgot password?

close x
close x

All analyst firms claim to be independent or vendor-neutral. We're different.

Real Independence


Get the real story on commercial and open source tools from a firm that works only for you, the technology customer.

close x

Newsletter Signup

Thank you for signing up for The Real Story Group Newsletter. You will receive our monthly newsletter, plus updates with new information on the technology streams you have expressed interest in below.










Choose the streams that you’d like to receive updates for: